


another perspective

by astraielle, ghoulaesthetics (astraielle)



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Sharing a Bed, gratuitous use of pet names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-22 23:46:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16607717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astraielle/pseuds/astraielle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/astraielle/pseuds/ghoulaesthetics
Summary: “I still don’t see why we couldn’t have set up camp somewhere else to wait out the storm.”--A thunderstorm and a demon-infested chateau were, apparently, the things Bull needed in place to finally have his Inquisitor try some cocoa on the road.





	another perspective

**Author's Note:**

> i needed a break from other projects and craved Fluff, what can i say

“I still don’t see why we couldn’t have set up camp somewhere else to wait out the storm.”

Bull made sure to pull the bedroom door as tightly shut as possible behind him. The locking mechanism was at least as old as he was plus a few decades, but it didn’t stop him from wishing he knew where the key was.

“I wasn’t about to suggest we spend the next three hours making our way back to the tents in these winds,” Isen replied easily as she dropped her bag gently on a chair. “Or in the rain, or the thunder, _or_ the lightning. And I don’t think anyone else was going to suggest we do that either.”

To say that the old Chateau in the Graves gave him the creeps was an understatement. They’d stumbled upon it earlier that evening just before the clouds had rolled furiously across the sky, and the idea of waiting out the deluge under a real roof as opposed to a tent had been appealing to nearly everyone. The wing of bedrooms had been mercifully close to their entrance, which limited the need for any real exploring. At that point, everyone was simply too tired and soaked to even consider such a thing until the next day, and Bull could live with that. The whispers from the shadows at the opposite end of the hallway and the flickering of lights none of them had ignited on their way in effectively killed any hint of curiosity he may have had.

“Yeah, but Varric complains about everything anyway. And I don’t think Cole would even notice the weather.”

“Yes, but I know _I_ would.” She shot him a look as she removed her long coat and made a point of shaking off all the water it had gathered just from the walk up the path. “And if you think Varric’s bitching is bad, you have no idea how far I can take it.” More outer layers came off, and Isen tugged her hair out of its bun and began to wring it out. She caught him hovering near the door still out of the corner of her eye. “You can step inside, you know,” she chuckled. “The most frightening thing in the room right now is me.”

Bull rolled his remaining eye towards the ceiling but did so anyway. His axe was left leaning against the ornate footboard of the bed, his pauldrons and harness draped beside it. Unlike Isen, he had less clothing to shed, and his pants were only slightly damp compared to what she was wearing.

It didn’t look as though they were in the master bedroom, but it was no servant’s quarters either. The bed itself was Orlesian make, its solid frame and canopy clearing inspired by Andraste and the Maker. Fraying tapestries lined the walls, which were for the most part in good condition. A plush rug was laid out in front of the unlit fireplace, somehow the object that had stayed in best shape over the years. The single window facing the Graves was a decent size, and made of ornate stained glass panels that depicted a scene from nature. The panels shook in their frame as heavy drops pelted down mercilessly, and rattled noisily with each clap of thunder. They were both surprised that it hadn’t begun to leak or break under the storm.

While Bull finished removing the bulkier bits of armour and his boots, Isen poked about the room for candles and lit them as she came across them. At first, she had thought to use veilfire, but then decided that was likely to attract whatever it was that had already made its home here. Traditional fire was the way to go.

“It won’t be that bad,” she went on. The small handful of wax stumps she’d found were enough to cast a faint glow over the bedroom. “Less than twelve hours until morning. And it’s better than trying to wait this out at a scout camp, even you have to admit that.”

“Sure. Until the demons here decide they don’t want any house guests and come with an early wake-up call.” Bull took a chance with the old bed and sat down on the mattress as he grumbled. It creaked dangerously under his weight, and the mattress all but collapsed into itself. Clearly, the years hadn’t been kind to it, and even if it looked inviting at first glance there was no way they’d actually be sleeping on it.

Isen stood from where she was poking around in the old ashes of the fireplace to see if there was anything left to actually start a new fire with and made her way over to him. “ _Vhenan_ ,” she laughed gently, fitting herself between his tights and looping her arms around his neck. “Love. Sweetheart. Come here—we’ll be _fine_ for the night. I’ll set up some more wards at the door and window, and there’s enough wood left to start a fire. We can set the bedrolls up there and dry off.” She leaned forward and kissed him once, then bowed his head down slightly and kissed his forehead. “You don’t really think I’d say ‘ _let’s stay here’_ instead of ‘ _let’s wait a bit here before going back to camp’_ if I wasn’t sure we’d all be fine, do you?”

The Iron Bull did not pout, but he was still doing a very good imitation of it in any case. “You know I love you,” he grumbled into her shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her waist, “and I know I signed up to follow you anywhere. But I don’t remember the clause on the contract that said anything about spending the night in a shitting demon hole.”

“I’m sorry,” she laughed again. “I promise you’ll be compensated for your troubles either through Josie or me.”

“I think we already know the outcome of that offer.”

“No doubt,” she smiled as she swept forward with another kiss. “Unroll our beds while I handle those wards?”

Somewhat reluctantly, he let her pull back to go about her casting. Isen made the necessary glyphs in the air with a few decisive hand motions. They passed into the door and left a softly glowing blue outline that eventually faded out. The same thing was applied to the window, though the glass made the magic dance strangely. She looked satisfied with her work, testing the bonds a few times just to make sure. Spirit-related magic was never something she was particularly interested in, but it wasn’t like when she tried to cast for a fireball. She was, at the very least, competent with this kind.

Bull pawed through both their packs and unfurled the bedrolls on top of the rug in front of the fireplace. He supposed, if they really wanted to, they could’ve pulled the mattress down from the bed and laid it on the floor. But more than likely it was filled with nothing more than rotted hay and feathers at this point. Best to just leave that where it was. Besides, the rug would be more comfortable than laying on the hard ground outside. Of course, there was nothing to say they couldn’t use other things found in the room—though she’d stripped out of her wet clothing, Isen’s remaining shirt and pants (she was barefoot too, naturally—the muddy water had soaked straight through her boots and socks) did little to keep a chill off her. He’d seen her trying to suppress shivers since the second they walked in.

A quick examination of the bedding proved it was, well, just as _gross_ as the mattress itself. Frowning, he cast a glance at the rest of the room before spotting a promising looking chest of drawers and trunk near the back corner. The top two drawers contained some stale-smelling shirts that had been the height of Orlesian fashion once. The bottom one yielded some better results—a quilt had been folded and tucked away, and the drawer had managed to keep it in relatively decent condition. He shook out the dust and checked it once over before deciding it was fine and tossing it over towards the bedrolls. It landed instead on the loveseat adjacent to the fireplace, something he wasn’t even about to try and sit on just from the look of it.

Isen raised an eyebrow and watched him with an amused smiled. “What, exactly, are you planning to do with that locked chest?”

“Make the most of a shit situation.” He squatted down and ignored the way his bad knee popped, instead focusing on the lock. Varric and Cole were in a room a few doors down, their lock-picking tools with them, and he wasn’t about to step outside the door to grab them. But, it was just as old as everything else in the Chateau, and age made things brittle. With a bit of effort, he was able to simply break it off. Part of the wood came along with it, but it wasn’t like he was worried about damaging the property of demons. His hunch was correct, and like the quilt that had been tucked in the drawer, the chest was filled with a stack of spare bedding likely intended for the chilly nights that set in over the Graves during the winter months. A bit frayed, but once he shook them out, most of the stale smell dissipated and they were fine for the one-night use.

He answered the question before she could ask. “You look cold,” he shrugged with the armful of furs and bedding, leaning down as he walked past her with a kiss dropped quickly on top of her head.

“A fair assumption,” she smiled as he began to arrange some of them on the floor as a sort of pseudo-mattress. Not to be outdone, Isen took it upon herself to figure out the fire. There wasn’t much to figure out. As someone who spent a good deal of her years living outside, setting up a fire was easy. The logs hidden under the ash were mercifully dry, and a bit of searching around the room revealed a half-hidden stack of more firewood behind a curtain. In a few short minutes, she had the proper kindling setup ready. Veilfire was still, in her mind, a poor choice, but there would be nothing wrong with igniting it through a spark from a regular-fire spell. A small flash from her fingertips, something that would build up slowly and last for at least part of the night. Once she was certain it wasn’t going to go out, she moved their boots and clothing nearer to the blaze in the hope that it would be completely dry by the morning. The final touch was unfurling the metal fireplace screen leaning against the wall and setting it up in front of the flame.

“Not so bad, is it?” She asked, settling herself cross-legged onto the bedroll. The day’s travelling had left her back sore, though it was probably more to do with the fighting than the walking. She stretched across the floor and managed to drag the old loveseat over, parallel now to their beds, and used it as a sort of chair back, twisting her spine this way and that in an attempt to work out some of the aches before sagging against the small sofa.

“Oh yeah, it’s real _quaint_.” Bull joined her on the makeshift double bed—two bedrolls pushed together, layered underneath with the rug and several blankets. In one arm, he carried the nicer of the quilts he’d found. The other held their packs, which further contained enough for a small meal before retiring for the night. “The creepy creaking and footsteps down the hall really add to the ambience,” he said as he arranged a blanket over her shoulders before settling down himself. “We should retire here.”

“You’re joking, but honestly I kind of like what I’ve seen so far—a summer home, maybe?”

Bull gave her a wry look. “Don’t even think about it.”

She chuckled, throwing half of the blanket she wore around her shoulders over his and pulling the ends together in front. It was more than large enough for the both of them, perhaps even too big to cover the bed in the room. “I’m just saying, you can’t get much more away from the public eye than an overgrown mansion in the middle of the Emerald Graves. It’s kind of romantic, actually.”

“ _Haunted_ mansion,” he corrected. “ _Possessed_ mansion, probably. I still can’t believe Varric and Cole took off like that when we got here,” he grumbled as he rummaged through their bags, passing her her canteen when nudged.

“They probably thought we were going to run off to have sex,” she shrugged as she took a sip. “Not like they don’t have _reason_ to believe that either.” Her grin was heavily suggestive. “We’ve probably done it in just about every camp we’ve stayed at, so by statistics alone and going off of how determined Varric is to observe us and include us in his next book, I’d say if no one else, that dwarf has _definitely_ seen more of the both of us than he ever wanted to. Although,” she added after a pause, “somehow I don’t really think we’re going to add this camp to that list.”

“Come to that conclusion all by yourself, did you?”

“Call me crazy, but somehow I don’t really think you’d want the possibility of getting caught with your cock out by a demon, no.”

“Hey, I think that’s a reasonable thing to want from life. I like my dick just the way it is—demon free.”

“I’m rather fond of it being that way too,” she laughed. “Pass me some of that dried goat from earlier? I didn’t realize how hungry I was until just now.”

“Goat,” he said as he passed it off. “Take some of the bread too. And those dried berries.”

“Bull, I’m not going to waste away in one night. I eat as much as a bird on a good day,” she laughed fondly as she bit down into the dried meat.

“We’re restocking tomorrow,” he shrugged as he took some meat for himself. “And that bread only has a few days on it at most.”

She didn’t argue the points, both of which were accurate enough. And if she truly needed to eat something before they managed to hit the scout camp, she knew the woods. There was plenty to sustain yourself on if you knew where to look, and if you didn’t mind game that sometimes had six legs.

While poking around for more cranberries, Bull’s hand brushed across the packets of cocoa powder he’d thrown in the bag at the last minute, mostly forgotten until now. Cole was carrying their kettle, and there was no way he was going to venture beyond their door to knock across the hall for it. Besides, they didn’t even have anything to hang it over the fire with.

He did, however, have a very capable mage at his side, which was just as good in a pinch.

“ _Kadan_?”

“Mm?”

“Think you could heat up the water in my skin for me? Not boil, just heated.”

“I don’t see why not.” She looked slightly puzzled as she took it in both hands. “But, why though?”

“Remember a few weeks ago, when Sera asked me if I missed anything from up north?” He moved her as he spoke, gathering her up from his side and seating her in front between his legs so that he could rest his chin on her head.

“Vaguely,” she replied, focusing on the liquid in the vessel between her hands as she brought it to a temperature that would have been acceptable for some tea. “I remember the part where you complimented my horn-balm making skills.”

“Mmhm. Bring a jar of that with me whenever we leave Skyhold,” he said warmly, gently easing out some of the knots that formed in her hair as it dried with his fingers. “What about the cocoa?”

“The cocoa? Oh, you mean that thing with the _guimauves_ you mentioned.” She wrinkled her nose at the thought. “I still don’t know how you can actually enjoy those things—here, this should be hot enough.”

“Say what you will about those Orlesians,” he said as he tested the water temperature, “but they know their way around sweets.”

“If you insist.”

It was a bit awkward to work around Isen, who had now apparently decided she was going to melt completely into his chest and pull the blanket tighter around them in a cozy cocoon. But Bull managed to get the powder mixed in with the water, closing the top tightly and mixing it by giving it a good shake. It wasn’t ideal—he would’ve preferred to use milk instead of water, and the perfect cup of cocoa could really only be achieved when topped with cream and _guimauves_. But given Isen’s well-documented distaste for overly sweet things, the lack of his usual supplies might just work in his favour.

“Here. Try it.”

She eyed it suspiciously, retreating further into the blanket. “And the ‘it’ in question would be… cocoa, I assume?”

“Just try it,” he chuckled. “It came in just before we left, so I grabbed some for the road. Kept meaning to bring it out when we made camp, but there wasn’t really the time for it.”

“So you mean to tell me something good camp of this night after all?” She teased.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, somewhat sarcastic but softer than before, still smiling. “I’m real glad it took a massive storm and a haunted house for me to finally find the time to get you to try this drink.”

“I’d better not waste this opportunity then,” she giggled as she finally accepted it. Hesitating, she took a sniff, eyed the dark liquid warily, and then finally took a drink. It wasn’t a significant amount, but it was enough for her to make a face and pass it back as Bull shook with quiet laughter behind her.

“That,” she declared, “is _vile_.”

“Aw _Kadan_ ,” he said, still chuckling as he took his own swig. “It’s not that bad—maybe you’re just missing the toppings? Or the cream?”

“Absolutely not,” she shook her head. “It’s—it’s just liquid sugar!” She made a face again. “I don’t know how you can actively enjoy that.”

He shrugged, grinning. “Suit yourself. More for me.”

“Be my guest,” she scoffed, reaching for more dried goat. “I’ll stick with my water, thanks. Maybe some tea if I’m feeling _really_ adventurous.”

They ate and drank idly for a time after, listening mostly to the sounds of the storm and the crackling of the fire. If it wasn’t for the very obvious haunting (and it was obvious, no matter how much he trusted her or how much she tried to downplay it for the sake of his nerves) Bull decided, then maybe this really could be a bit of a romantic getaway in the middle of their endless trekking through the woods, monotony only broken by battle.

The cocoa wasn’t nearly as good as he could normally do, but Bull was more than happy not to share anymore all the same. It was still, after all, a familiar treat from a home he’d likely never set foot in again. It should have been an upsetting thought, but he found the only thing disappointing about the evening to be a lack of marshmallow.

They repacked what was left when they were done, and Isen remotely snuffed out the candles she’d left around the room so that the only light came from the fireplace.

Bull leaned back and circled his arms around her body, taking her with him.

“Which arm was it again that took that sheld earlier on?” she asked softly as she ran her much smaller hands over his.

“The right, why?”

“Put that one on top. I’m going to help the bruising a bit.”

He shifted his hands around, and her chilled palm found the affected area almost immediately despite the fact that she refused to open the blanket up to actually look at what she was doing. It wasn’t a healing spell, just something cold to take the swelling down, but it was an appreciated gesture nonetheless. He knew without asking that she’d do the same, except this time with heat, for the dull throbbing in his knee brought on by the dampness at least once before the night was up. They had time, after all, and it was rare that they could spend it like this on the road. Even the pace of Skyhold held few breaks to simply hold each other like this. 

“So,” she said idly after some time spent listening to each other and the rain, “we’ve been here for a good few hours, and nothing has come to the door. We’re warm and dry near a fire, and you finally had the chance to subject me to your cocoa. Still think this was such a bad idea?”

“Still early enough that things could go south,” he mumbled. Yet, he’d removed his eyepatch and remaining leathers after they ate, periodically drinking down the last bits of the cocoa and pressing kisses to her hair and shoulders whenever the urge struck. Aside from the way he would automatically listen in on every remotely suspect sound and tense up for a split second, Bull would’ve fooled anyone into thinking he was completely at ease. He blamed the heat of the fire and the sleepiness that radiated off of Isen as the moments ticked past.

“Maybe whatever gods are around today have decided to give us a break,” she chuckled. “Just for the night, as a reward for our hard work.”

“If they really wanted to do that, they should’ve stopped the storm instead.”

“I don’t know,” she gave a lazy shrug. “I kind of like it. It’s relaxing. Feel how boneless I am right now? It’s relaxation.”

“Is that your way of saying you don’t feel like moving yourself?”

Her lips twitched. “Maybe.”

She let herself be moved and arranged horizontally on the bedrolls to his liking. Closer to the fire, naturally, which had only now started to visibly die down. Bull laid down beside her, with no option but to sleep on his back without the mountain of pillows they kept on their bed at Skyhold. Isen wiggled closer once he was completely settled, fitting her body around his. Besides the one they were sharing, Bull pulled an extra two blankets over her half of the bed, her body all but disappearing under the bulk.

Isen rolled over and draped herself across his chest. “Thank you,” she said softly, stretching up to gently and deliberately kiss his cheek, then his brow, then his mouth.

“For what?” He asked as he pulled her in as close as he could, fingers quietly tracing old scars on her exposed shoulder.

“Dunno,” she smiled tiredly, deciding that the most comfortable place for her head was somewhere near the middle of his chest. “Just felt like saying it. Let’s try and actually sleep, alright? I somehow have a feeling tomorrow’s going to collect on tonight being so uneventful.”

“I hate that you’re probably right about that,” he chuckled, eye sliding closed in spite of himself. “Night, _Kadan_.”

“Goodnight,” she hummed peacefully. “Love you, _ma sa’lath_.”

“Love you too, _Kadan_. Love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> she totally ended up buying that house and renovating the hell out of it, js


End file.
